RIP MCA

In addition to his contributions to music, Adam Yauch did some incredible poltiical activism as well, including some that were pretty couragous. Charles Davis:

But one memory sticks out: the recently deceased Adam Yauch, or "MCA," speaking out against the Clinton administration's bombing of Iraq.

This was not a popular thing to do at the time, it being well into year eight of the campaign to paint Saddam Hussein as the next Hitler, only this time perhaps even more crazy and Arab-y. That was reflected in the mostly young and hip crowd's response to Yauch's comments about how maybe the U.S. government shouldn't be bombing the people of Iraq: a chorus of boos. But that didn't shut him up; about a month later, he repeated his anti-war message to a much larger audience at the MTV VMAs (Ed note: video below), pointing out that each American-made cruise missile only perpetuated the circle of violence and invited the prospect of future retaliation.

RIP MCA